Sector Solutions

Whitepapers

Facial Recognition Technology

Increasing attention is now being given to the monitoring of airports, train stations, shopping malls, and other important facilities where large numbers of people gather. In the security industry, there is a growing need for monitoring systems that can help to stop crimes before they happen. Rather than using high resolution cameras to passively capture people’s faces and behaviors, there is a growing need to identify important and suspicious people to provide an active security response. In order to solve problems such as these, Panasonic has newly developed FacePRO, a facial recognition system which utilizes deep learning technology. With inbuilt analytics changing traditional monitoring, the system is better equipped to provide safer and more secure environments.

Demands for surveillance camera performance have been on the rise in recent years with increased social worries about terrorism in addition to worries about road, railway, and other accidents. Performance demanded includes higher resolution including 4K, higher data compression based on H.265, and surveillance in low light environments outdoors. In particular, inability to gain satisfactory images as demonstrated by shaky images and the like due to the environment where the camera is set up has become an issue in harsh outdoor environments including those of for urban surveillance. To overcome those issues, Panasonic has released new H.265 PTZ cameras. A high-level surveillance environment is provided by PTZ cameras optimized for outdoor surveillance.

Cyber-attacks on IoT devices have been increasing in recent years. Surveillance systems centering on analog cameras and recorders had mainly been used in closed networks such as companies' internal networks. However, with the migration of surveillance camera systems from analog to digital, network composition is becoming large scale and being connected to the Internet is becoming the norm. Moreover, surveillance systems are recognized as being an important part of the social infrastructure, and the risk of cyber-attacks on IoT devices is similarly increasing day by day.This white paper describes the functions of and how to set security functions on Panasonic's i-PRO series of surveillance cameras and recorders (hereinafter, the "i-PRO system").

Surveillance cameras are seeing almost daily advancements in the areas of lenses, imagingsensors, and image signal processing. This is done to allow subjects monitored, such as peopleand cars, to be more clearly recorded. Resolution in particular has gone from analog resolution(720 x 480) of a decade ago to HD (1280 x 720), FHD (1920 x 1080), and 4K (3840 x 2160) in thepast few years, and even higher definition will likely be achieved in the future.With the advance to high definition, data volumes for video are increasing to levelsincomparable with those of the analog age. Due to that, costs for networks to deliver that videodata and recording media to store it are becoming major issues.Meanwhile, not all of the video recorded is of use by customers, and in most cases it isdisposed of without being checked even once. For that reason, technology to allow delivery andsaving/storing of just the video really needed (video that includes the subject monitored) andthereby reduce costs is demanded.

No professional IT network is run without virus scanners and firewalls. IT departments have learned, at times to their own high cost, just how important security in IT networks is. However, we seem to consider ourselves to be very secure in the area of video over IP. Existing security settings are simply disregarded and not configured. Security updates on cameras are ignored and service contracts that could seal precisely these gaps continue to remain rare in German IP networks. It can often be misleading to believe we enjoy security – something we want to explore in greater detail in this brief report.

With the increasing concern over better protection of people and assets, security departments are required a higher level of security than before: proactive prevention, earlier detection, a better situational awareness, a quicker identification, a prompter action and more. It is essential to conduct surveillance in a well-planned manner, give security staff good training, and ensure good communication between all related parties. Video surveillance has also become essential. Now many organizations are continually reevaluating and enhancing their video surveillance system to provide optimal daily security and operational efficiency.

Nature has given severe challenges to video surveillance. While indoor lighting may have a not-so-wide dynamic range, natural light such as direct sunlight causes difficult lighting conditions. Adverse weather conditions such as snow and rain may also cause poor visibility. In low visibility, it is difficult for security personnel to identify suspicious objects and movements, or to monitor road traffic conditions and rail infrastructure. But the great need exists for reliable surveillance and remote monitoring in these challenging conditions.

With the growing concern over physical security, surveillance cameras have been installed outdoors more and more in every industry sector and public space from towns, airports and railroad stations to offices, retailers, healthcare providers and more. Installing cameras under the open sky with expensive outdoor housings became required. Today outdoor-ready cameras offer high-waterproof performance. External housings are no longer required but other points need to be considered when installing cameras outdoors. Panasonic has shipped the largest number of outdoor vandal resistant cameras in the security camera industry. This paper describes the considerations and latest technologies for outdoor surveillance cameras.

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